Horizontal Structures - Very Good, Based on 3 Critics

AllMusic - 80Based on rating 8/10

80

On their second studio album together, Moritz von Oswald (programming, keyboards, percussion), Vladislav Delay (percussion), and Max Loderbauer (sequencer, synthesizer) are joined by guitarist Paul St. Hilaire (a frequent collaborator with von Oswald's Rhythm & Sound) and double bassist Marc Muellbauer. The new elements do not obscure the trio’s potency as improvisational hypnotists.

Moritz Von Oswald’s Basic Channel projects were all about establishing borders, running fences around austere prisms of sound so as to not taint them with the glut of overindulgence. His project with Vladislav Delay/Luomo’s Sasu Ripatti and NSI/Sun Electric’s Max Lodbauer as the Moritz Von Oswald Trio seems to wander through a hinterland looking for those borders, despite giving all his tracks restrictive names like “Patterrn”, on the previous release Vertical Ascent, and “Structure”, on Horizontal Structure. The group has a jazzy tilt, exploring electro-acoustic space in a structured and controlled environment.

As a member of pioneering minimal/dub/techno outfits Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound, Moritz Von Oswald has spent more than a decade imbuing machine music with human warmth. More recently, he's doing the opposite-- making warm bodies sound like machines. Moritz Von Oswald Trio is his group of living, breathing musicians-- an all-star ensemble that also includes Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric) and percussionist Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay).